Monthly Archive for November, 2010

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We highlighted some of the more interesting numbers from L.A.’s Friday evening victory against Toronto at STAPLES Center, the sixth straight for the Purple and Gold to open the 2010-11 campaign:

4 Steals for Derek Fisher, including a key swipe late in the fourth quarter that helped seal the game. Fisher added 11 points to the effort. Also the number of three pointers made by Steve Blake, three of which came in the final few minutes of the first quarter to help the Lakers take an early 33-20 lead.

6 Straight games in which both Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol have scored at least 20 points, the first time two Lakers teammates have done so since 1970 when Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain did so.

12 Turnovers for the Lakers, who have consistently taken care of the ball throughout the first six games. Also the number of field goal attempts, and free throw attempts, for Bryant towards his 23 points.

13 More free throws attempted by the Lakers than the Raptors, helping explain Toronto’s 14-point edge in the points in the paint category (see below).

20 Shooting percentage of Lamar Odom (2-of-10), who came into the game leading the NBA in field goal percentage at 70 percent.

24 Fastbreak points for Toronto, a fact about which Phil Jackson wasn’t pleased after the game.

30 Points for Gasol to lead the Lakers on 12-of-22 shooting (54.5 percent).

52 Bench points for the Raptors, who were led by Leandro Barbosa’s 17 and 14 from Jose Calderon. L.A. got 14 from Blake and 12 from Shannon Brown towards a total of 30.

58 Points in the paint for the Raptors, compared to just 44 for the Lakers.

84 Combined number of minutes played by Gasol (44) and Odom (40), which Jackson would like to avoid if possible, though found necessary in the continued absence of Andrew Bynum.

Below is a running diary of L.A.’s fourth home contest of the season as the team looked for a sixth straight victory to start the season, with some comments drawn from our @LakersReporter Twitter account, and a few more details in case you missed any of the action:

FIRST QUARTER6:46 The Lakers were a bit sluggish at the game’s tip, missing four of five shots while conceding some easy buckets at the rim on the other end to the Raptors. But we did get to see a bit of retro Fisher, stripping the ball from Bargnani and finishing in transition after a pretty behind-the-back dribble that got Shannon Brown, Steve Blake and Derrick Caracter off the bench to cheer.

4:00 One player who didn’t start slow was Kobe, who nailed his first four shots to lead the Lakers on a 10-0 run that produced a 20-12 lead. Historically, Bryant’s field goals also happened to allow him to pass Jerry West for second on the franchise’s all-time list for made field goals with 9,017. The only Laker still ahead of him is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who made 9,935 as a Laker.

0:03.9 One, two, three went Blake’s three-pointers through the rim, the final one to secure a 33-20 lead out of the first for L.A. Keyed by Blake, the Lakers hit 13-of-18 shots to close the period with a 63.6 percent make ratio on offense, looking very much like the team currently leading the league in scoring (113.8 ppg).

SECOND QUARTER9:00 Make that four threes for Blake, who drained yet another from the corner opposite L.A.’s bench that had been so kind to him in the first quarter, keeping L.A.’s lead at 40-29.

4:08 Two free throws from Bryant allowed him to join Gasol (14) and Blake (12) in double figures with 10 points, but the Lakers’ defense wasn’t exactly firing on all cylinders, allowing the Raptors to shoot 50 percent to stay within eight points at 50-42.

2:15 Somehow, Toronto whittled L.A.’s lead down to just a single point at 50-49 before Artest managed to get an off-balance jumper to fall. The Lakers had cooled considerably from the field, most notably a 1-for-4 Odom, this because he entered the game shooting a league-best 70 percent through five games. Meanwhile, the Raptors managed to close the half on a 7-0 run to take a 58-55 lead, capped by a corner three from Leandro Barbosa (who had 15 points off the bench).

THIRD QUARTER7:41 As Odom started to be more aggressive offensively, the Lakers reclaimed the lead, the lanky lefty first converting an and-1 layup and then hitting 1-of-2 free throws after Artest stripped Jack on defense and fed Odom in transition. Odom should also be given credit for holding Toronto’s best player, Bargnani, to only four points in the first half.

3:10 The Lakers were really struggling to find a rhythm in the third quarter, surprisingly so after such an impressive start to the season, as Toronto managed to maintain its three-point lead throughout the period. The Raptors almost pushed their lead to four with a two-on-one break, but sneaky-good-in-such-situations Fisher drew a charge on DeRozan to keep the margin at 78-76.

0:24.8 A Gasol free throw got the Spaniard to 22 points in his 34 (out of 36) minutes, and capped a 6-0 Lakers run to close the quarter, giving L.A. an 82-78 lead. Clearly, it wasn’t L.A.’s best three quarters of the season, but they remained in the driver’s seat.

FOURTH QUARTER9:58 A beautiful left-handed spinning hook from Gasol after a glide through the paint pushed L.A.’s lead to 89-80, capping an 11-2 run that began late in the third quarter. He’d check out moments later for a quick rest, with Odom returning for the home team.

5:15 Almost immediately upon checking back in to close the game, Bryant got the ball in the post on consecutive possessions, converting two free throws and a short jumper to put the Lakers up 97-92, getting himself to 20 points in the process. At long last, the Lakers had picked up their defensive energy.

1:09 It was L.A.’s two stars who finally put the game on ice, getting two free throws from Gasol and one from Bryant to take a 104-96 lead. Fisher’s fourth steal of the evening didn’t hurt the cause, either, setting up Bryant for the extra free throw. Incidentally, Gasol (28 points) and Bryant (21) became the first Lakers teammates since Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain in 1970 to score at least 20 points in the first six games of the season.

0:00 With the game essentially over, Bryant turned the ball over needlessly in the backcourt, and was just angry enough to volleyball spike the ensuing Linas Kleiza layup attempt. Gasol added two free throws to reach 30 points, and the Lakers emerged with a 108-103 victory to move to 6-0 on the young season.

Judging from Lamar Odom’s outstanding all-around preseason after his performance for Team USA at the World Championships, it’s not much of a surprise that he’s been very effective during L.A.’s 5-0 stretch to start the regular season.

But 70 percent from the field? Or 80 percent from three-point range?

That’s aggressive.

Nonetheless, Odom has converted 35 of his 50 field goal attempts, including eight of his 10 three-pointers, to lead the NBA in field goal percentage. He’s averaging 16.6 points, 11.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists along with 1.0 steals per game.

Toronto Raptors Coach Jay Triano was an assistant on Team USA’s gold-medal winning squad, and his praise for Odom couldn’t have been much higher.

“I thought Kevin Durant was absolutely fantastic over there, but I thought Lamar Odom was the guy that was the reason the team was successful,” said Triano. “He was the glue, he was the veteran, he was the guy that had won a championship before and he was the guy who was the anchor at the defensive end and it was the defense that won the whole thing for us.

“He’s just very valuable, a good teammate and I was really impressed with him as a person and as a basketball player.”

The last player to shoot 70 percent from the field through the first five games of an NBA season, with a minimum of 50 attempts, was Charles Barkley. Sir Charles converted 43-of-60 (.716) during the 1991-92 season in Philadelphia. The only other Laker to ever start so hot was Wilt Chamberlain, who made 49-of-70 shots across the first five games of the 1968-69 season.

Odom is a career 46.5 percent shooter, 31.8 percent from three, with his best season from the field coming in 2007-08 (52.5 percent).

Obviously, the stakes were just a bit different between Derek Fisher’s key seven-point scoring streak from Wednesday’s early-season road win in Sacramento and his absolutely critical 11-point scoring stretch in Game 3 of the NBA Finals last June.

But there were similarities worthy of comparison, born out of a combination of the defense overreacting to Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, and Fisher’s confidence/experience/moxy in key situations.

Here’s the play-by-play from last night:

4:09 Fisher grabs a defensive rebound, pushes in transition and draws a foul, converting 1-of-2 free throws to put L.A. up 99-90.3:35 Fisher drains an open three-pointer, L.A.’s first field goal make since the 7:43 mark, their offense stalled with Sacramento overplaying Gasol and Bryant.3:17 Fisher strips Carl Landry at the other end and races down to convert an and-1 layup, essentially putting the game out of reach for good at 105-92.

Fisher offered some explanatory thoughts on Wednesday at the team’s practice facility:

I think it’s the recognition of how we’re being defended as well as stepping into those opportunities. From the beginning of the game to the end, if the other team has any smarts they’re going to overplay Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol. That’s just the reality of it. From my position and really anybody on our team, you just have to find that balance between playing your game and taking your shots and opportunities but also recognizing who we’re playing against. You play against a team like Sacramento who wants to score in transition, maybe you don’t take some of those shots that you normally take. You play against a team like Portland, who we’re going to play on Sunday, they play really good half court defense so maybe you want to take some good early transition shots. It’s that combination of things that takes place, and last night I was able to get couple that I guess were timely for us.

We highlighted some of the more interesting numbers from L.A.’s Wednesday evening victory in Sacramento, the fifth straight for the Purple and Gold:

POSTGAME NUMBERS0 Triple-doubles from Kobe Bryant in 2009-10 despite coming within an odd rebound or assist several times. It took him only five games for his first of 2010-11, however, as he totaled 30 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds against Sacramento without a single turnover.

3 Lakers turnovers in the first three quarters, a ridiculously low average of one per period. That matched the team’s all-time low for a game set on 12/30/01 against Houston, but three final quarter turnovers gave them six for the game (still to the pleasure of Phil Jackson).

4 Double-double for Pau Gasol in four of five games after another solid effort against the Kings, in which he posted 22 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks.

6 Points in a manner of seconds with roughly three minutes to go for Derek Fisher. Just as the Kings cut L.A.’s lead down to seven with a late run, Fisher nailed a corner three, then stripped Beno Udrih and converted an and-1 at the other end to show once again why Jackson has him on the floor.

11 Three-pointers nailed by the Lakers in 21 attempts (52.3 percent), several of which came in run-stopping fashion. Ron Artest and Bryant hit three each, while Lamar Odom was 2-for-2 and Fisher 2-for-3.

80 Odom’s three-point percentage to start the season (8-of-10).

82.1 L.A.’s free throw percentage on the evening thanks to 23-of-28 makes. Bryant and Gasol were a combined 17-of-20 to lead the way.

37,493 Career minutes reached early in the first quarter for the new all-time leading Laker, Kobe Bryant, who passed former holder Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Below is a running diary of L.A.’s second road contest of the season, in Sacramento, with some comments drawn from our @LakersReporter Twitter account, and a few more details in case you missed any of the action:

FIRST QUARTER12:00 Something you can always count on in Sacramento is the “Beverly Hills 90210″ theme song being played in the background of L.A.’s starting lineup introductions. It’s meant in a derogatory way, but that show was awesome … and the Lakers have won seven of eight games at ARCO, so it hasn’t worked in a little while.

8:51 Lots of Kobe in the early goings, including two three-pointers that pushed him up to 40 percent from distance (8-of-20) on the season, and gave him five makes in his past eight attempts. A Sacramento time out came with L.A. up 10-4, which quickly became 13-4 when Fisher nailed a triple of his own. By the way, Bryant had passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the second minute of the game for the most minutes in Lakers history (37,493).

2:41 The Lakers didn’t slow down from an offensive execution standpoint, totaling 28 points while shooting 70 percent, but the Kings were nearly as hot towards 24 points of their own into a time out. A highlight from that stretch was Gasol throwing home an alley-oop from Bryant after Kobe called out the hole in Sacramento’s defense during a substitution. The Kings responded with a 5-0 run, but newly-entered Steve Blake and Matt Barnes hit respective shots, a three and a layup, both from Bryant’s hand. He’d finish with 10 points, six assists and four rebounds in a very active first quarter (35-33 L.A.), surely helped by having to play only 27 minutes the previous night.

SECOND QUARTER9:37 For the first time in 136 minutes, dating back to the second quarter at Phoenix last week, the Lakers lost a lead as Luther Head hit two free throws, followed by two more hoops to make it 43-38 Sacramento. L.A. was still playing pretty good basketball, but the Kings were riding an extremely active crowd to consistently excellent energy.

7:08 One way to stop a Kings’ run is to hit an and-1 three-pointer, so that’s what Bryant decided to do immediately upon returning from a bench stint during which Sacramento outscored L.A. 10-3.

3:00 Time log from a Lakers time out: assistant Brian Shaw spends one minute talking to Fisher … Fisher and Shaw go over and talk to Jackson, who’s writing something (presumably a play) on his dry-erase board … Lakers inbound the ball, and Bryant finds Gasol for a wide-open two-handed alley-oop dunk. Impressive, wherever the credit goes for the idea. Bryant would add two free throws, set up a driving Gasol for a layup (resulting in two free throws of his own) and find high school All-America receiver Barnes for a buzzer-beating layup to allow L.A. to close the half up 62-53. Bryant was officially on triple-double watch, by the way, amassing 21 points, eight assists and five boards in the half.

THIRD QUARTER9:04 It didn’t take long for Bryant to get the double part of his triple-double down, as back-to-back assists to Artest (a layup) and Odom (a three-pointer) got him to 10 assists, and the Lakers to their biggest lead at 71-59.

5:15 What a run from the Lakers, looking every bit the twice defending champs while building an 82-62 lead with a big run. Bryant was front and center, nothing yet another assist (without a turnover in the game) to feed Artest for the run-concluding three-pointer.

2:46 Just what Sacramento didn’t need: Tyreke Evans, playing with four fouls, was stripped by Artest, and then promptly fouled Steve Blake, who’d picked up the loose ball. This after Artest’s third three of the game gave the Lakers an 85-70 lead, snapping an 8-0 Kings run. The Kings promptly went on another 8-2 run, but Odom pulled up for a deep three to put the lead at 92-78 heading into the fourth quarter. Remember that Sacramento had already come back from 16- and 17-point deficits in wins over Cleveland and Toronto.

FOURTH QUARTER10:00 It wasn’t a great start to the fourth for the Lakers, as Blake and Brown continued a collectively rough shooting night (1-for-8 at that point) with the Kings trimming the lead to 10.

8:00 Back in to close the game came Bryant, who quickly grabbed his 10th rebound to get to his first triple-double since 1/21/09 against the Clippers with 25 points, 12 assists and 10 boards at that point. That made it hard to argue with Bryant’s assessment that he’s feeling “100 percent” from the other day.

3:55 Evans, back in the game with five fouls, got to the rim for the second straight time to convert a layup, cutting L.A.’s once 20-point lead to just seven.

3:14 Enter Derek Fisher, showing yet again why Phil Jackson has him on the floor. With Bryant and Gasol taking turns missing shots, who else but Fisher stepped up to bury a corner three, then strip Beno Udrih before converting a tough and-1 layup to restore L.A.’s lead to a safe 13 points?

The Kings managed to trim just a point off in the final three minutes, producing a 112-100 Lakers victory to move L.A. to 5-0 on the young season.

Sacramento’s games have been decided by a total of only 13 points, which happens to be just .25 under the average number of points by which the Lakers (4-0) have defeated their four opponents. Oddly, the Kings have fallen behind by double digits early in each of their three wins before second half rallies for victories. In fact, they trailed by as many as 16 against Cleveland, and 17 against Toronto before clamping down defensively in the second half.

But with Beno Udrih and Tyreke Evans running offense on the perimeter, Omri Casspi or Francisco Garcia hitting shots on the wing and some combination of big men DeMarcus Cousins, Samuel Dalembert and Carl Landry getting it done in the paint, the Kings have opened with their best early record since the start of the 2003-04 season.

Evans, the 2009-10 Rookie of the Year, is averaging 20.7 points, 6.0 assists and 6.0 rebounds in his three games after missing the opener (suspension), while 2010-11 R.O.Y. candidate Cousins is averaging 14 points and 6.5 boards in limited minutes primarily due to foul trouble.

Yet it’s been a balanced attack, as four other players – Landry, Udrih, Caspi and Garcia – are all averaging double figure points as well for a team scoring the third most points in the NBA at 108.8 per game. The latter two players have drained a collective 15 of 30 three-pointers to effectively spread the floor.

But the difference between the Kings and Lakers, despite Sacramento’s three wins, has been on defense. The Kings are allowing 108.5 points per game, while the Lakers are holding opponents to 101.0 while scoring a league-best 114.3.

Of course, there’s nothing the Kings would rather do than end L.A.’s perfect early record on the team’s first back-to-back of the season. Directly after their stirring comeback win over Toronto in which they outscored the Raptors 60-46 in the second half, Kings fans were reportedly chanting “Beat L.A.” at ARCO Arena.

Despite how difficult it can be to play in ARCO, however, the Lakers have won seven of the last eight games played in the state capital, and are looking for another behind what’s been a deadly combination of Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom and Kobe Bryant on offense and a very-much-improved bench led by newcomers Steve Blake and Matt Barnes.

Below is a running diary of L.A.’s third home game of the young season, with some comments drawn from our @LakersReporter Twitter account, and a few more details in case you missed any of the action:

StartersLakers: Fisher, Bryant, Artest, Odom and GasolGrizzlies: Mike Conley, O.J. Mayo, Rudy Gay, Darrell Arthur, Marc Gasol*Arthur was starting in place of Zach Randolph, out with a lower back contusion.

FIRST QUARTER8:37 After the Lakers scored the first five points of the contest, the Grizzlies finally got on the scoreboard when Marc Gasol drew a foul on his brother Pau. The Lakers simply marched down to the other end and hit back-to-back threes, first from Odom and then Fisher.

2:27 After L.A. beat Golden State on Sunday (while jumping out to a similarly large early lead), Phil Jackson suggested that Bryant’s defense wasn’t yet up to par with his offense. Bryant, of course, responded by opening up very aggressively and effectively on defense as O.J. Mayo went 1-for-4 from the field, and it didn’t slow down the Finals MVP on the other end. Bryant made all four of his field goals towards nine points with two boards, then got his first assist on an Artest three to make it 29-18 Lakers.

0:30 A Barnes free throw was the final point of the first, in which L.A. took a 34-23 lead, scoring 34 points for the second straight first quarter. The Lakers are tough enough to beat when Odom, Gasol and Bryant are all in form, but taking care of the ball (two turnovers) and getting to the line (nine times) sure doesn’t help opponents like Memphis.

SECOND QUARTER7:04 In just eight minutes of action, Matt Barnes went on a personal assault of the offensive glass, grabbing six boards over Memphis defenders. He couldn’t find the hoop on several put-back attempts, however, until finally getting one to go, to a standing ovation from Bryant on the bench.

2:27 Content to let Gasol and Odom dominate for much of the first half, Bryant suddenly went off from three-point range, nailing three from distance in just over two minutes to put the Lakers up 66-40. Bryant would finish the half with 23 points on 7-of-10 shooting, with Gasol (15) and Odom (11) joining him in double figures. Speaking of three-point shooting, Odom had connected on all three of his attempts, making it five straight hits across the last three games for L.A.’s Swiss Army Knife. His only miss of the season came in the first game (6-of-7 total, 85.7 percent).

0:00 So, that was easy. For the first time since Jan. 15, 2010 against the Clippers, the Lakers scored 73 points in a half. They shot 58 percent from the field to get there, also aided by 11 offensive rebounds and 14 made free throws.

THIRD QUARTER6:31 A powerful Pau dunk, in reverse fashion off the baseline, kept L.A.’s lead in the 20′s halfway through the third quarter. The Spaniard would add two free throws moments later to reach his third double-double in four games (21 and 12).

4:48 Determined not to let the Lakers coast all the way towards a victory, Rudy Gay continued an excellent individual game by converting an and-1 to reach 13 points in the quarter and 28 in the game on 11-of-16 shooting (3-of-3 from three), helping Memphis get within 14 points at 81-67.

0:00 Determined to let the Lakers coast all the way towards victory, Shannon Brown nailed back-to-back threes to close the quarter with L.A. up 97-76. Brown and Barnes had combined for 19 bench points for the home team.

FOURTH QUARTER12:00 Phil Jackson kept Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol in, though Bryant and Fisher sat on the bench, to ensure victory, and a quick 7-0 run put the game on ice for good with L.A. up 104-76.

2:29 Barnes, who had been terrific all night, grabbed his ninth offensive rebound of the game total 14 rebounds along with 16 points in a terrific game off the pine.

0:00 Your final: 124-105 Lakers, who had led for 122 straight minutes since early in the second quarter against Phoenix. Not a bad way to start the season.

Stay tuned for postgame numbers, and check back on Wednesday evening for a running diary of L.A.’s road game in Sacramento.

This week marks the seventh in Gasol’s career that he’s been named Western P.O.W., and the fourth time as a Laker (three with Memphis).

Here’s a look at Gasol’s game-by-game statistical contributions:

Oct. 26 vs. Houston: Totaled 29 points, 11 rebounds, two blocks and two assists in a 112-110 win over the Rockets.Oct. 29 @ Phoenix: Amassed 21 points, eight rebounds and nine assists with two swats in a 114-106 Lakers win over the Suns.Oct. 31 vs. Golden State: Put up 26 points to go with 12 rebounds, four assists and a pair of blocks in a 107-83 win over the Warriors.

Boston’s Rajon Rondo won the award in the Eastern Conference while averaging 16.7 assists in three games, including a season-opening win over Miami.